Clothes that Turn Heat into Electricity

With rising energy costs and our growing arsenal of iPads, smart phones, and wearable monitors, we’re always on the lookout for new ways to power our devices. Perpetua Power, an Oregon-based startup, has invented a chip that can turn heat into energy – specifically the heat from your own body. When placed against your skin, the one square-inch TEGwear thermoelectric generator outputs up to three volts. One generator is enough to power headphones or a pedometer; a battery of them sewn into your favorite jumpsuit might even provide enough power for a phone. Maybe the TEGwear chip will be the intermediate step between old-and-tired fossil fuels and our fat-powered Energy Belt.

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This is a huge leap forward. Why, because it seems to me this chip is much more efficient than solar cells for it’s size, and there are much better places to utilize this chip than in clothing. Hooking up these chips in series in a hot space like an attic or anywhere the temperature is say between 99 and 120 degrees could do much more than just charging a phone. Take the gimmick-drive away from promoting this technology, and this can be a serious step forward.